4 Nominal morphology and the Noun phrase
4.1 Nominal morphology
This section describes nominal morphology and word formation. It starts with compounding which includes co-compounds and elaborate expressions. Then it proceeds with description of the nominal prefixes and suffixes.
4.1.1 Compounding
There are two types of nominal compounding in Amri Karbi: co-compounds and elaborate expressions.
4.1.1.1 Co-compounds
Most nominal compounds in Amri Karbi are root-root compounds. Table 4.1 shows the list of compounds found in the data. The compounds are of different types. The most common type is the compound of nouns from similar semantic domains. For example, two nouns from similar semantic domains are an‘rice’ and han‘vegetable’ that together create the general meaning
‘food’. These types of compounds are called co-compounds that express natural coordination (Wälchli 2005:1). They can also be categorized as Part-Part compounds (Wälchli 2005:6), where the two elements are parts of the whole and the parts are very closely related in meaning.
Some co-compounds are very culture specific; for example,lang me (water fire) ‘stuff for cooking’ might not look like a closely related compounds to the people who do not come from the tradition of cooking food on open fire and bringing water on everyday basis.
There is another type of a Noun-Verb compound which has two members; one of these is choròng‘cow’ which is a noun and verb compound,chó‘eat’ and ròng‘plant’. The word order in the compound is unusual, as normally an object would precede a verb. Another example of this type of compound is ansam‘cold rice’, with a noun an‘rice’ and an adjectival verb ingsam
‘be cold’, where the prefix ing- is dropped. The word order in ansamis different from the word order in choròng, as the adjectival verb ingsam ‘be cold’is placed after the noun an‘rice’.
Generally, adjectival verbs do not have a fixed position and can appear both before and after a noun, so the word order in ansamis not unusual.
Table 4.1 List of compounds/co-compounds Type of
compound
Compound word Gloss Origin
Part-Part anhan ‘food’ an‘rice’, han
‘vegetables’
soksáng ‘paddy’ (in harvesting time)
sok‘rice paddy’ sáng
‘uncooked rice’
langmē ‘stuff for cooking’ (on open fire)
lang‘water’ mē‘fire’
piso so ‘family’ piso‘wife’,so‘child’
chengmuri ‘music’ cheng ‘trumpet’, muri
‘drum’
hanbab ‘crop’ (vegetables) han‘vegetable’
bab‘grass’
hēmphu master, lord hēm‘house’ phu
‘grandfather’
sarpesarpepo old couple sarpe‘old woman’, sarpepo‘old woman’s husband’
Noun-Verb choròng cow chó‘eat’, ròng‘plant’
ansam cold rice an‘rice’ ingsam‘be
cold’
Each part of a co-compound has a stress; inflections usually apply to the entire unit and appear on it as if the co-compound is one word, i.e. each part of a co-compound does not inflect separately. In the example (4.1) of the co-compound chengmuri ‘music’ the entire unit is marked with prefix a-for modification.
(4.1)
aro wo thatbo lata kamprek achengmuri do
aro wo that-bo la=ta kamprek a-cheng-muri do and bird slaughter-IRR DEM=ADD be.different POSS-drum-trumpet COP
‘and we will slaughter a chicken, for that also there is a different (tune of playing) drum and trumpet’
Example (4.2) shows another example of a co-compound of two elements sarpe‘old woman’
and sarpepo‘old woman’s husband’. The evidence that the two nouns form one noun phrase is that there is no possessive prefix a- on the second noun,sarpepo‘husband’.
(4.2)
isi a-sar-pe-sar-pe-po=he mane hen ki-e-dam=tànghò one POSS-be.old-F-old-F-M=EMPH means yam NMLZ-plant-go=REP
‘one old woman and woman’s husband, Imean, (they) went to plant yam’(BT Monkey) There are some co-compounds that consist of two morphologically separate words that create synonymic and part-part co-compounds. For example, Table 4.2 shows a co-compound of two synonymic words sal kamthat means ‘work’, where both saland kamon their own already mean ‘work’ and kamis a borrowed word from Indic languages. These words usually appear together whenever a speaker wants to say the word ‘work’. The wordsal‘work’ on its own usually appears in a construction, e.g. hēm a-sal(house POSS-work)‘house-work’. So, neither salnorkamare used on their own when a speaker wants to say ‘work’and the co-compound sal kamserves that purpose. Another co-compound of the same type is poisa tanga ‘money’, where each word on its own means money and in this case both words are Indic borrowings.
This co-compound may change its order, i.e. tanga poisais also possible. The wordpoisa is sometimes used on its own as a word for ‘money’, but tangausually is not. The compound kiso kilak‘sickness’ consists of two nominalized adjectival verbs. Table 4.2 also shows the word for ‘week’ ahat arulwhere both nouns obligatorily carry the possessive prefix a-. On its own arulcan also mean ‘week’ and appear as a word for ‘week’ in a construction. The word ahat is from an Assamese word hat‘seven’, so ahat arulmight be not an ideal case of a synonymic co-compound, but then many languages have the same word for‘week’ and‘seven’ and the fact that Amri Karbi in the co-compound for ‘week’, use the borrowed word instead of the native word for ‘seven’ might suggest that they perceive hat‘seven’ as a word for ‘week’.
These types of co-compounds also have their own stress, but each part of the co-compound inflects separately for the possessive prefix a-or they appear in a compound already inflected with the possessive prefixa-.
Table 4.2 Co-compounds of two morphologically separate words
Compound word Gloss Origin
hat arul week hat‘seven’ (Assm)
rul‘week’
poisa tanga money poisa‘money’ (Ind)
tanga‘Ind’
kiso kilak sickness -so‘be.hot’
-lak ‘be.tired’
Part-Part co-compounds
piso so family piso‘wife’,so‘child’
ku nokpak/
tokan nokpak
tools ku ‘spade’,tokan
‘spade’, nokpak
‘machete’
In example (4.3) each part of a co-compound piso so (wife child) ‘family’is marked with the possessive prefix a-for possession.
(4.3)
alang meatsi apiso asopen chirjapsi
alang mé-ad-si a-piso a-so=pen chi-arjap-si 3 be.good-very-NF:RL POSS-wife POSS-child=with RR-stand-NF:RL
ahupo kipi adunglephalangpen hrengsi kido
a-hu-po ki-pi a-dunglephalang=pen hreng-si ki-do
POSS-father.in.law-M NMLZ-give POSS-land=with survive-NF:RL PST-stay
‘he was surviving with the land given by his father-in-law and living a good life with his wife and children’(MI One man)
4.1.1.2 Elaborate expression
Amri Karbi uses elaborate expressions, also called echo-words, to create idiomatic and colourful meanings. In Amri Karbi, elaborate expressions involve compounding and partial reduplication strategies; they consist of two words, that are usually of two syllables each.
Elaborate expressions of two words of three syllables, which would be six-syllable elaborate expression are also found in Amri Karbi. The first part of the elaborate expression is a meaningful word that can be either a noun or a verb; the last syllable of the second part usually does not have a meaning of its own. The second part of an elaborate expression reduplicates the first two or three syllables of the word that may contain affixes of the first part. So, it looks like the second part of the elaborate expression is a reduplication and only one syllable is different from the previous part. In other words, the structure of elaborate expressions looks like AB AC if elaborate expression is of four syllables or ABC ABD if it is of six syllables. C in four-syllable and D in six-syllable elaborate expressions are meaningless syllables.
The clitics attach only to the last part of the compound. Example (4.4) contains two elaborate expressions, a verbal expression chie chisom and a nominal expressionjengtak jenghu.The last syllable of the second parts of the elaborate expressions sominchie chisomand huinjengtak jenghuhave no meaning.
(4.4)
baribathan chek inghin chie chisomsibaribathan
baribathan chek inghin chi-e chi-som-si baribathan farm small.bamboo big.bamboo RR-plant RR-EE-NF:RL farm
chikoman jengtak jenghupen
chi-kom-man jengtak jeng-hu=pen
RR-make.boundary-HAB bamboo.rope rope-EE=with
‘we plant small bamboo and big bamboo and make fence, plant them surrounding the field, bind with bamboo robes’(DT Culture)
Elaborate expressions might be flexible, but they might be also fixed expressions, as there is some evidence from the database where two different speakers used the same elaborate expression in a different away. Examples (4.5) and (4.6) show the elaborate expression kachi-i kachkachi-ipotused by two different speakers.
(4.5)
minonsi tantihalpo enman aro kachi’i kachipotkelalo
minon=si tantihal-po en-man aro ki-chi-i ki-chi-pot=ke la=lo now=FOC:RL loom-DEF take-HAB and NMLZ-RR-wear NMLZ-RR-EE=TOP DEM=FOC
‘but now they take the loomand this is for (our clothes) to wear’(BT Weaving) (4.6)
lasi hali jibonpolongke hrengman aro kachi’i
lasi hali jibon(Ind)-po=long=ke hreng-man aro ki-chi-i so 1PL.EXCL life-DEF=LOC=TOP survive-HAB and NMLZ-RR-wear
kachipotpolongtaamo kipu badilo
ki-chi-pot-po=long=ta amo ki-pu badi=lo
NMLZ-RR-EE-DEF=LOC=ADD before NMLZ-say as=FOC
‘so in our life we survive and in wearing before (I) said like this’(DT Culture) 4.1.2 Nominal prefixes
This section describes nominal prefixes. Nominal prefixes include the general possessive prefix a-, which is also a third person possessive prefix. Then there are personal possessive prefixes and pronouns that have been already addressed in §3.6.1. There is a verbalizer pa- that is not productive in synchronic Amri Karbi.
4.1.2.1 Possessive prefix
a-The prefix a-marks nouns to indicate third person possession. Nouns are frequently marked with the possessive prefix a-to indicate that a noun is modified or that the noun is a part of a construction17. Therefore, head nouns and modified possessor nouns are usually marked with the possessive prefix a-. Nouns are typically marked with the prefix a-when modified by pre-posed modifiers: interrogative pronouns, possessor nouns, adjectival verbs, adjectives, some pre-head numeral classifiers and relative clauses. Nouns are inconsistently marked with the prefix a-when modified by the demonstrative laand also by the determiner/demonstrative la=bangDEM=GNR.After the reflexive pronoun bithang‘own’ the possessed noun is marked bya-in all three persons. The prefix a- usually does not appear on nouns marked with
post-17The prefix a-is also an important morpheme in subordination, see §9.1.
head modifiers. In the example (4.7), the noun kampiis modified by a pre-head modifier and is marked with the prefix a-.
(4.7)
parake isi ijon akampisoke alangke phule chiparkupklakngo
parake isi i-jon a-kampi-so=ke alang=ke phule chi-parkup-klak-lò then one one-CLF:ANIM POSS-monkey-DIM=TOP 3=TOP pot RR-cover-PRF-RL
‘then one little monkey covered itself with the cooking pot’(BT Monkey)
The prefix a-is obligatory on inalienable nouns; some other nouns carry the obligatorya-for no apparent reason (e.g. adak‘period of time’, adin‘day’). The obligatory possessive prefix a-is replaced by personal possessive prefixes when necessary, see description of possessive prefixes in §3.6.1. The inalienable nouns always carry a possessive prefix, regardless of whether they are modified or not.
Usually the prefix a- does not attach to nouns beginning with a-phoneme (exceptions include:
a‘arkeng‘betel nut’, a‘an‘rice’). The prefix a-usually does not attach to numerals, e.g. *aphili
‘four’, and numeral classifiers a-ki-men pum-ni(POSS-NMLZ-be.ripe CLF:round.fruit-two) ‘two ripe fruits’.
Examples (4.8) - (4.10) illustrate the prefix a- marking modified nouns.
(4.8) interrogative pronoun
lapara arlenghel pot adoropte namchotman
lapara arleng-hel pot a-dorop=te nam-chot-man then man-PL what POSS-product=Q2 buy-most-HAB
‘then which products people buy most’(BT< Interview)
(4.9) possessor noun
neke rechopo ahambrikhel honpido, kaibak wange tine chinghu
ne=ke recho-po a-hambrik-hel hon-pi-do kai=bak wang-ye tine chinghu 1=TOP king-M POSS-chilli-PL guard-BEN-COP who=INDEF come-FUT then thief
ponpidedne mene pusi
pon-pi-ded-ne mene pusi take-BEN-all-NF:IRR may.be QUOT
‘I am guardingking’s chilies that if somebody comes,may steal away’(RI Monkey and crocodile)
(4.10) reflexive pronoun bithang
jike nipupe nibithang ahem manta neke ambakhelsi
ji=ke ni-pu-Ce ni-bithang a-hēm manta ne=ke ambak-hel=si whatever=TOP 1-say-NEG 1-self POSS-house but 1=TOP some.time-PL=FOC:RL
wangbo neng ho
wang-bò neng ho come-IRR2 sister.in.law INTER
‘whatever you say you are my own family, yet after sometime I will come, sister in-law, ok?’
(Mrs&Mrs Gathering)
The prefix a-usually does not mark a noun modified by post-posed modifiers. Example (4.11) shows the nounhambrik‘chilli’ modified by the post-posed modifier akimenhel‘ripe’ and not marked with the prefix a-.
(4.11)
lasi anangke mingsurungpo kidam aphel hambrik akimenhel
lasi anang=ke mingsurung-po ki-dam aphel hambrik a-ki-men-hel so 3=TOP fox-M NMLZ-go after chilli POSS-NMLZ-be.ripe-PL
ihipara heksi cholo
ihi=para hek-si chó-lò side=from pluck-NF:RL eat-RL
‘sothe fox left, he (the monkey) plucked ripen chills from one side and ate’ (BM Monkey and fox)
Example (4.12) shows another instance where the nounkampi‘monkey’ is modified by a post-head modifier ijonand it is not marked with the prefix a-.
(4.12)
anang honne kido amunsi akaholo para kampi
anang hon-ne ki-do amun=si a-ki-holo para kampi 3 guard-NF:IRR PST-COP time=FOC:RL POSS-NMLZ-be.far from monkey
ijon theksi anang dungwango
i-jonthék-si anang dung-wang-lò one-CLF:ANIMsee-NF:RL 3 near-come-RL
‘while he was guarding at that time from far away a monkey saw and came near to him’(BM Monkey and fox)
The prefix a-seems not to occur when a noun is followed by a post-head modifier, even when a pre-post modifier is present too. Example (4.13) shows the nounlang‘water’ modified both by the pre-posed modifier labang ‘that’ and the post-posed modifier akithepe (POSS-NMLZ -be.big-AUG)‘big’. The head noun in (4.13) is not marked with the prefix a-.
(4.13)
la aphe=ke aro la=bang lang a-ki-the-pe=long=ke ghurial
DEM after=TOP and DEM=GNR water POSS-NMLZ-be.big-AUG=LOC=TOP crocodile
i-jon ki-do
one-CLF:ANIM NMLZ-COP
‘after that there was one crocodile in this big water’(RB Fox and crocodile) 4.1.2.2 Personal possessive prefixes and pronouns
Personal possessive prefixes and pronouns were described in §3.6.1.
4.1.2.3 pa-verbalizer
There is a verbalizer pa- that derives verbs from other word classes, but it has very limited productivity in Amri Karbi. So far,-pa was found to function as a verbalizer only on three words; all of them semantically refer to time. The prefix pa- can derive verbs from a noun anuwe18‘night’, paanuwe/panuwe19 ‘spend night’, from an adjective abhem ‘late’, pabhem
‘make late’ and a relator noun ango‘before’, pango‘(move) forward’.
4.1.3 Nominal suffixes
This section describes nominal suffixes. Nominal suffixes include the lexical gender suffixes, masculine -po and feminine -pe. Many Tibeto-Burman/Trans-Himalayan languages use the male suffix grammaticalized from ‘father’ for forming nominalizations and modifiers. In Amri Karbi one of the words for father is pa(the other word ista). The suffix -pois not found to form modifiers; however, the nominalization function of -postill exists in the language, though not in a productive way, this function of -pois described in §5.1.13. The feminine -pealso has an augmentative function in Amri Karbi which is discussed in this chapter along with the diminutive that is marked with the suffix -so. The three suffixes -po/-pe/-soalso function as definiteness/specificity suffixes (see more in §7). There are also plural suffixes -hel,-(po)mar, that have definiteness as a part of their meaning and for that reason they are described in §7.
18It is not certain though that anuwefunctions only as a noun, as it behaves as a semi-verb by taking some of the TAM morphology, but not the nominalizer/past tense marker ki-.
19 The noun anuwemight have historically originated from the negative copula weand the noun arni‘sun’
construction, i.e. arni we(sun NEG.EXIST.COP2) ‘no sun’ > *arniwe.
4.1.3.1 Lexical gender suffixes
Most Amri Karbi nouns are gender neutral, apart from proper names and certain other nouns, e.g. apenso‘man’ arloso‘woman’ and some kinship terms pa/ta‘father’, ai‘mother’.
Amri Karbi has two lexical gender suffixes -pe‘female’and -po‘male’. Lexical gender suffixes usually attach to kinship terms and animal and plant names. Proper names are generally used with the gender suffixes, as previously discussed in §3.2.1. Gender suffixes may attach to kinship terms that are already gender specific like pa‘father’, pa-po(father-M)‘father’ or ai
‘mother’, ai-pe (mother-F) ‘mother’. Gender suffixes may attach to gender neutral kinship terms like muso‘sibling’ to specify a gender, e.g. a-muso-po (POSS-sibling-M) ‘brother’, a-muso-pe(POSS-sibling-F) ‘sister’. Gender suffixes may attach to some nouns to create new words; for example, if gender suffixes attach to the noun hime‘widowhood’, the noun then can refer to a person, e.g. hime-pe(widowhood-F) ‘widow’, hime-po(widowhood-M) ‘widower’.
The female -peoccurs with animal referents, e.g. bik-pe(goat-F) ‘female goat’, wo-pe
(chicken-F) ‘hen’. In addition, with animal referents suffix -pemay be used as a noun bik ape(goat POSS
-F) ‘female goat’, wo ape(chicken POSS-F) ‘hen’. The male counterpart of an animal referent is marked with -lo, which is used as a noun bik a-lo (goat POSS-male) ‘male goat’, wo a-lo (chicken POSS-male) ‘rooster’.
4.1.3.2 Augmentative and diminutive
The augmentative -pe and the diminutive -so are derivational suffixes that are not very productive – there is only a handful of nouns from which -pe/-so can derive augmentatives/diminutives, they are listed in the Table 4.3. Note that nouns róng‘village’and hēm‘house’ in the Table 4.3 have an augmentative form, but not a diminutive form, and the augmentative on those nouns does not mean ‘big in size’, but ‘main’. The augmentative -pe seems to be more productive than the diminutive -so. In fact, there is just one example in the database where -sofunctions as a diminutive (4.14). The diminutive -so, however, appears in the database in the function of definiteness with diminutive semantics, as it also does in (4.14), so in the right context the forms rongso‘little’ and hēmso‘small house’ that are missing in the Table 4.3 may appear in a discourse where the function of -sois definite for something ‘small’, see more in §7. The definite -sois etymologically related to the word osoor -so‘child’.
Table 4.3 Nouns with augmentative and diminutive suffixes
Noun Augmentative form Diminutive form
róng‘village’ róngpe ‘main village’,
‘capital’
NA20
arlong‘stone’ arlongpe‘big stone’ arlongso‘pebble’
théngpe21‘tree’ théngpepe‘big tree’ théngpeso‘small tree’
hēm‘house’ hēmpe‘main house’ NA
anuwe‘night’ anuwepe‘whole night’ anuweso ?
prithibi ‘world’ prithibipe‘entire world’ prithibiso ?
ari22munso‘finger’ ari munpe‘thumb’ ari munso‘little finger’
(4.14)
bikso ghalting homloksi do aro biksoyok ponphakngo
bikso ghalting homloksi do aro biksoyok ponphakngo